ANNELIES STRBA
A resident of the Zurich metropolitan area, Strba has exhibited extensively in Europe, primarily in Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Austria, England, and France. Over the past two decades she has developed a cohesive chronicle of her family, using photography, digital media and film. Strba’s works are personal and poetically abstract documents of those who have defined her physical and emotional life.
In the portraits, Strba’s subjects are either captured while immersed in intimate domestic situations - in the chaos of untidy rooms, sitting at the dining room table, grooming their hair, sleeping - or while loosing themselves in nature. Her newest work pushes the latter theme to new extremes. Rather than surrounded by nature, Strba’s figures now seemingly “melt” into the landscape; they are less immersed rather than absorbed. This inherent sense of longing for becoming one with nature, is akin to concepts found in such German Romantic painters as Caspar David Friedrich or the Hudson River School. Though Strba’s work allows for associations with the likes of Turner, Balthus and Klimt, for example, her manipulative use of digital technology, provides an unmistakably contemporary feel.
Annelies Strba, NYIMA 403, 2009, Pigment print on canvas, 49 1/4 x 72 7/8 inches, 125 x 185 cm, Edition : 2/6
